The wine that doesn't travel....

Today The Guardian ran a story on what to do with the kind of holiday booze that tastes great in its country of origin, but when you bring a bottle home in an attempt to recreate the exotic atmosphere of your trip, it just makes you feel sick and ends up taking up space at the back of a cupboard for years. Personally I've never suffered from this problem, and any bottle of cachaca, Thai whisky or slivovitz that's made it home with us has been consumed with relative enthusiasm and speed. (There was some caraway aqvavit that outstayed its welcome once, but that came from Ikea in Hillington so I'm not sure it qualifies.) Anyway, the story reminded me of this recipe for pigeon cooked with patxaran, so here it is.

Incidentally patxaran (that's the Basque spelling; it's pacharan in Spanish) is a digestif made by macerating sloes in anis - it's not unlike sloe gin. Served over plenty of ice, it tastes like cough medicine and soothes an over-worked tummy a treat. I should have had some to alleviate the food-poisoning I contracted in Chester last weekend, but that's another story.

Ingredients: 4 whole pigeons or 12 pigeon breasts, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 ripe tomatoes, skinned, ½l meat stock or water, ¼l patxarán. Oil, salt & pepper
Preparation: Heat the oil in a casserole and sauté the onion until transparent. Brown the pigeons or breasts slightly with the onion, add the garlic cloves, flambé with the patxarán, crush and add the tomatoes and add the meat stock or water. Cover and simmer gently for around 20 minutes for whole birds (ten for breasts) then check to see if they're done to your liking. Check seasoning and serve with a green salad and some kind of potatoes, maybe mashed.